In all honesty about Kennedy, on the Yankees he wouldn't be nearly as good. Facing Boston, Tampa Bay, Toronto and even Baltimore so many times a year would kill him. It was a great trade for the Yankees. Again, knowing what I do now, I'd make it in a heartbeat. Hughes pitched pretty well yesterday. Let's keep in mind that, like AJ the other night, an error extended an inning on him and actually led directly to a run (plus additional pitches). Was he dominant? No. I didn't expect him to be though. He looked like he was trying to test his stuff, and while his location wasn't amazing, he was able to throw his pitches pretty well. I think that's a pretty good return from an "injury" it took Justin Verlander a year to recover from. I didn't see anyone make mention of Jeter's play last night at shortstop so I will. I don't care what anyone says about his defense, the guy can still play. No way Nunez makes that play. When the hell is Girardi going to get properly kicked in his ass for the behavior of his pet? Mitre is absolutely awful. He has no redeeming value. I also take issue with Girardi trotting Logan out for an extra inning. Logan never gets to pitch to more than one batter, much less more than one inning. The Yankees scored enough in the ninth to erase the deficit Hughes created. Rather than getting the win though, they fell victim to more pen mismanagement from a guy who somehow gets tons of credit for his management of it. I have to say one last thing about last night's game: thank goodness Boston made such an awful trade for Martinez. Masterson looked absolutely amazing. I can't imagine having to face him multiple times a year.
No pitcher would be as good in the AL East as he would be in the NL West. Ask Kevin Brown or Randy Johnson about that one.
Yankees without Jeter: 15-5. Yankees with Jeter: 36-30. Yankees since his return: 1-3. Three more years of this.
So Jeter pitched these last few games? Derek Jeter since his return (4 games): 4 for 18, 2 RBI, 1 BB Brett Gardner's last 10 games: 6 for 35, 0 RBI, 4 BB Bench Gardner forever!!!!1111oneoneone Now maybe you're just joking, maybe not. If you're not, go root for another team because I don't want to see Nunez playing shortstop and right now Gardner isn't exactly making the "he should be the leadoff guy" argument. Anyway, Colon hit a speed bump last night. Mark Feinsand put it best though, that if you were told coming into the year that Colon's first awful start would be on July 7th, would you take it? I sure would. Nova had a good start last night. From what I understand, his curveball is absolutey unhittable at the AAA level. I'm glad he was sent down, rather than stuck in the pen up here, though I wish they'd do it with Noesi too.
First of all, I was (99%) joking. I do think the Yankees are a better team without Jeter. I don't think it's Jeter's fault they've lost recently. Secondly, I think it's funny that you, Alio, of all people would tell someone to root for another team if they were complaining about the team's performance. I mean, the yanks have lost four of five and have fallen out of first place. Aren't you overdue for a freak out?
Yup. But I'm not a fickle fan who lets one, two, or even three games drastically sway his opinion. (Although, if there was a situation in which I'd admit that Jeter is still a solid player worthy of leading off, it would be when facing lefties. He still does very well against them.) I'd love to be wrong and watch Jeter spend the rest if the year pretending it's 1999. I'm not going to hold my breath, though.
Well, then you're a tool. If you think the Yankees are better off with Eduardo Nunez as the starting shortstop (assuming ARod is healthy enough to play third) then we have nothing to talk about. Yankees with Jeter > Yankees without him. Oh, and Brett Gardner is now 6 for 33 in his last 10, batting .182 with 0 RBI and 2 R. Tell me again how he deserves to bat leadoff. On second thought, don't. Because he doesn't and I don't feel like listening to you.
Fantastic rebuttal. The "you're a tool" response is a classic and obviously proves your position superior to all others. I especially like the part where you state the point of contention as evidence in favor of your claim. Remarkablly deft. Sheesh. In any case, for the same reasons that I don't think one game undoes 1.5 seasons of mediocrity from Jeter, I don't think a handful of lousy games from Gardner undoes 1.5 seasons of performance that has been clearly better than what we've seen from Jeter. Variance happens. How often do you need to see it to believe it? And it happens both ways, regardless of what you want to believe. If/when Gardner has another hot streak over seven games, will you be clamoring for him to bat leadoff then? At least that way, you'll be consistent in your mercurial approach to the team.
No, I don't consider my opinions superior to anyone's. I simply think you're a tool. As for restating the contention, again, if you think Nunez at short is better for the Yankees than Jeter, we have nothing to talk about (not that such an idea would be shocking). For the record, the closest I came to "clamoring" for Gardner to bat leadoff was when I finally gave up on arguing with all the people demanding he be moved to leadoff, where I pushed Jeter to second and everyone else down a slot (that was also because ARod wasn't hitting like a cleanup hitter). Gardner does well at the bottom of the lineup. Partly because it's the bottom of the lineup. I've said it before. It may be nothing more than a number, the difference between the 9 and 1 holes, but it still makes a difference in-game on the pitches the batter sees. If the Yankees released Gardner outright this afternoon I wouldn't ever think about him again. So nice try. But for a guy who loves to point fingers at others for their methods of arguing, you sure love to build strawmen yourself. That's okay. I really don't care.
Meh. You're missing the point. It's silly (to put it nicely) to base those judgments on a handful of games. Do I think the Yankees are better without 2011 Jeter? Yes. Does one 5/5 game change my opinion on that? Nope. Could Jeter change my opinion with a solid second half? Probably. Could Gardner shit the bed in the second half and change my opinion of his value? Sure. But the bottom line is that it takes more than a handful of games, and I have a hard time taking anyone who makes such rash judgments very seriously. Sorry. It probably doesn't help your arguments that you tend to resort to name-calling at the drop of a hat, but that's something of a separate issue.
Well, I'll start off by saying I'm sorry for the name-calling. That was a bit childish, and I regret doing it. So I'm sorry for that. As for your other points, sure, you're right in as much as most of Jeter's first half was garbage, and I'd bet even he'd admit as much. Would I still take 2011 Jeter over 2011 Nunez? In a heartbeat. FTR, I expect both Jeter and Gardner to have solid second halves.
I understand the desire to want to think Jeter will improve, but remember, it's not just his first half... it's all of last season, too. So when I'm thinking about future performance, I ask myself, which way is the guy who just turned 37 likely to trend? Will he improve upon his past 1.5 seasons? Or decline? And I compare those likely trends to the 24 year old rookie. Will he be likely to improve over his current performance (which is already better offensively despite limited playing time)? Will he get worse? How much of his throwing issues will diminish with more playing time? In this case, I'd say all signs point to Nunez being a better option than even the revered Derek Jeter. I love Jeter, but even the best players get old and at some point their skills diminish enough to start hurting the team if they play.
